44 O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 w w w . c a n a d i a n l a w y e r m a g . c o m
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all on today's date. The country's
political system went from abso-
lute monarchy to rule by the
people, and back to dictatorship
in only the briefest span of time,
but once declarations like this
were made in one of the great
powers, the proverbial genie was
out of the bottle. Freedom of
speech is now a universal hall-
mark legal right of democratic
countries often enshrined in
constitutions. The corollary to
freedom of speech legislation in
Canada are the Human Rights
Tribunals and hate speech legis-
lation where arguably our soci-
ety has placed limits on what
is reasonable communication
between people, and what can
be depicted. There has been a
more recent increase in litigants
seeking restitution through
HRT as opposed to civil court
given the significantly reduced
costs, time and risk. Under the
Human Rights Act damages
used to be capped at $40,000,
but that has been lifted. More
recent six figure awards through
such tribunals illustrate that
communication between
people can lead to serious
consequences when unwanted,
or when harm is caused. The
question remains very live over
two centuries later in Canada
whether freedom of speech is
also freedom to offend, and
how to judge and determine
when that threshold is breached
and causes damages.
A
s opposed to writing about a
recent decision, or framing an
opinion on something in the
news, I find that looking back
is sometimes just as important
as looking forward. It reminds
us of how far legal issues have
come, but also that things can
revert. So let us have a look at a ground breaking
event that occurred on today's date.
In 1789 during the French Revolution, the new
National Assembly proclaimed freedom of speech for
Freedom of Speech =
Freedom to Offend?
"There has been a more
recent increase in litigants
seeking restitution"
by Daniel Michaelson
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